SAVING THE SPECTACULAR BIRDS OF PARADISE

PAPUA, INDONESIA

With Papua Kerafat

Elegant Dark Chocolate

Presence of pear and dried fruit add a chapter to the history of this Rarest of Rare “Dutch” cacao we rediscovered in Indonesia. Its flavours are as elegant as the birds of paradise in the surrounding rainforests.

Where the birds of paradise dance

Papua, Indonesia

West Papua is blanketed in one of the largest untouched tropical rainforest in the world. The dense lowland rainforests are habitat to such endemic bird species as the magnificent Birds of Paradise, the peculiar Cassowary and the Victoria Crowned Dove–all considered sacred by the local indigenous tribes. The region’s economy is ‘for the taking’: mining, illegal logging, and land clearing for palm oil production threaten the rainforest. Fortunately, the forest is owned and managed by local indigenous tribes, and with our sustainable economic cacao project in balance with rainforests and local traditions we do our best to support them.

A world’s chocolate premiere: Papua Kerafat

The Kerafat cacao – the result of a natural crossing of Criollo and Forastero trees – became very rare due to the many problems it had to face over time: Nearly displaced by hybrids and reduced by diseases, floods and wild animals, only a few trees of this cacao are left today. In 2014, Original Beans launched the world’s chocolate premiere of this rare bean: Original Beans Papua Kerafat 68%.

ONE BAR : ONE TREE @Papua

After the rediscovery of the Kerafat, we started raising seedlings of the strong and flavor-rich Papua Kerafat cacao trees in 3 cacao nurseries, which we are planting alongside fruit and forest trees in biodiverse cacao-forests, a buffer zone for the primary forest that provides living and courtship grounds for endangered bird species. The project area has been defined as a 20x50km stretch of forest with several communities, each of about 100 inhabitants, all indigenous people of Papua.
On the ground, we:

Support indigenous farmer cooperatives in the management of economically viable cacao enterprises

Unfortunately, prolonged droughts in addition to the already precarious conditions in this remote, forest-clad corner of the world have affected the cacao harvest negatively in recent years. We have been putting our expertise and hearts into this conservation and community project for 5 years, so it is with much sadness that we have to realize that we are no longer able to source this ultra-rare cacao. We are now selling the last bars. The purchase continues to support the local indigenous community and their biodiverse forest home.

“We were born in this forest and the forest sustains us as a tribe”

Nathaniel Yaru, spiritual chief of the Yaru

Papua Kerafat

Elegant Dark Chocolate

Presence of pear and dried fruit add a chapter to the history of this Rarest of Rare “Dutch” cacao we rediscovered in Indonesia. Its flavours are as elegant as the birds of paradise in the surrounding rainforests.

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